Four hours ago I was driven home from Smilow to Wilton. As noted, the surgery began around 2 pm yesterday and ended four hours later. Basal cell carcinoma removed from an area behind my left ear, and skin from my left shoulder grafted onto the half-dollar-sized vacancy. As we speak there’s a drainage tube inserted within the shoulder wound. It feels like I’ve been stabbed, and the knife was never pulled out. Or like I’ve been shot. A guy who recently went through something similar says “it’s the anesthesia that you really need to recover from.” I tried writing a couple of things at the hospital and again after I got home, but my system was too dopey. I kept nodding off and coming back. Mobility-wise I am Kharis, the mummy. This might be my lightest filing day since launching HE 14 years ago.

The headline quote was allegedly voiced by Donald Trump in early 2017, when senior officials tried to explain the ominous nature of the burgeoning national debt (currently at $21 trillion), including a “hockey stick” spike sometime in the mid 2020s. In response, Trump allegedly noted that “the debt would reach a critical mass only after his possible second term in office.” This according to a first-hand source who spoke to The Daily Beast‘s Asawin Suebsaeng and Lachlan Markay. Trump said “Yeah, but I won’t be here.”

I was under a strong anesthetic when the news broke yesterday about Kevin Hart hosting the Oscars, and today was mostly about states of woozy-groggy, pain medication, slipping in and out of the cave and not glancing at my reflection in a mirror of any kind. So let’s pretend the Hart announcement happened a few hours ago. The first reactions were approving. Then came the short Oscar jokes followed by the unrepentant homophobia stuff. I presume Hart is going to weather the pushback, but you can bet he’ll be taken to task over the next several weeks. Thoughts?